joining us for an exclusive interview is howard schultz, the chairman, ceo, of starbucks. thank you, jim. where home of the super bowl seattle super -- no, sorry about that, home of the super bowl seattle seahawks. >> well, i -- yes, indeed. i know that i was hoping i'd see you at the game because i know that i think that you guys are going to win, but that's not what we're here to talk about right now. i'm the astute follower of your conference calls. i think you buried the lead but we're going to go with what you said first instead of what i thought should have been led which is the amazing turn in europe and how strong china is, you felt that you wanted to talk about the sea change and the pronounced shift that brick and mortars are no longer doing as well and the way the digital is coming on strong via device, why lead with those when the stock is clearly saying it's a turn in europe and the strength in china that matters? >> well, there's no question that the month of december was an inflection point in the u.s. retail business and over time it will be a reflection poi

richard kinder of kinder morgan, howard schultz of starbucks, one of the great business builders of thet 20 years. kinder and schultz both on the cnbc list of finalists for the most transformative business people of the past 25 years. >> yes. rich kinder is really kind of, what he's done is built this remarkable -- he's a visionary. he understood before everyone in this country that we have more oil and natural gas in this country than anyone thinks. he decided to build the infrastructure that will get it from where it is to where it needs to go. he's created, he and others have been the masters of masters limited partnerships. they give you a better than average yield. interest rates are going down here. lot of it is natural gas based. i'm saying this is the kind of stock, i like the kmp version best that you want to think about in a decline like this. >> howard schultz one of the most thoughtful ceos, not meaning he's considerate, though i'm sure he is, but he thinks about stuff. >> he is charitable. >> mark papa, i don't know as well. >> mark is the old enron oil and gas. mark's the

i think when off forward-looking ceo like howard schultz is that's definitely an asset for a companyhat's really trying to embrace technology the mobile platform and really go to where the consumers are. >> but, jason, to kelly's point to some degree howard schultz used to make the argument -- he doesn't make it anymore. he used to make the argument that their supply would create their own demand. in other words he'd set up a shop anywhere and customers would come. at some point that has caught up with the company, don't you agree, and they will be subject to the laws of big numbers, if not already, don't you think? >> no question. the basic laws of economics are coming into play here. i think that's why you see starbucks becoming more things to more people. it's not just a coffee company anymore. it's evolution fresh, teavana. they're trying to integrate the new aspects of the business into the model. it's not going to be something that happens overnight and there will be mistakes but we recently interviewed cfo troy alsteady here and he was up front in telling us food would be a pr

has drastically cut back on shopping or simply decided to buy things online, which is something howard schultz, the ceo of starbucks talked about last week. schultz indicated people are checking prices and simply using the mobile phones to order the same goods online at the best prices. that's a secular sea change. now, i counter you can't order a triple venti cappuccino with skim wet online and expect to get a hot one. no matter, they took s bucks to the woodshed, too. it closed at $75.12. only macy's, which can bargain with the biggest suppliers to get the lowest prices, it produced a stronger number last week. it does have a terrific internet strategy. how bad was it out there? get this, wendy's, a stock i've been behind a long time, actually came out and preannounced sharply better than expected earnings. but you know what, there was zero pin action. the good news only applied to wendy's, up 6.4% today as every other retail restaurant chain i follow got hit. now the question is, can you consider these declines as part of a healthy reset of expectations for retail? that would be welcome new

there are leaders doing a great job like tony shea and larry and howard schultz and you see things.ou don't see those kind of things at other companies. >> if you go to silicon valley, it is rife with entrepreneurs. >> yes and a lot of people who don't have a clue about running a business or don't have a clue about getting to the next level. they care about funding and so forth but they don't know how to run businesses. it is a rare breed that can make it happen and that know what it takes. >> all this week, we'll have more from the betty liu interviews on how to get ahead. movies, " jack ryan shadow recruit" is in theaters. ? >> bloomberg television iso." "on the markets it is relatively mixed out there officials say more than 4000 people have been forced to move to shelters. , but thehas moved out cold temperatures have moved in. strong's -- central park saw 11 inches of snow. near zero from new york to boston. stay warm. the cube has cracked. cracked.e panels has the culprit is unbelievable. is 450 k.o replace it davos is the side of the world economic forum. it is a detonation f

there are leaders doing a great job like tony shea and larry and howard schultz and you see things. don't see those kind of things at other companies. >> if you go to silicon valley, it is rife with entrepreneurs. >> yes and a lot of people who don't have a clue about running a business or don't have a clue about getting to the next level. they care about funding and so forth but they don't know how to run businesses. it is a rare breed that can make it happen and that know what it takes. >> all this week, we'll have more from the betty liu interviews on how to get ahead. " jack ryan shadow recruit" is in theaters. ♪ >> bloomberg television iso." "on the markets it is relatively mixed out there with the dow jones down 2/10 of one percent. the s&p, you're looking at industrials, energy as well as utilities which have been showing strength. overall, it's been a pretty neutral market. traders are calling it range bound. there is not a lot of conviction out there. we want to highlight two movers -- the first is advanced micro devices bridge shares are falling the most in three months de

howard schultz, the ceo, has been adamant on that point.perception problem not an actual problem. >> not only is there absolutely nothing to suggest that there is an issue, but i would also remind you that because of the starbucks card and the quick mobile payment that we are speeding up the level of service in our stores. when you look at the amount of people that are now paying with a card and the unbelievable rate of adoption and how creative mobile payment is, there is no issue whatsoever. this is a myth that absolutely has no legs and for all of you listening on the call, you should just eradicate that thought. it is not exist. >> i don't know how he can say that, julie, given what we see at starbucks was a >> they say basically that people are now ordering these pastries and there is a bigger volume of people waiting for them, so there is this idea that the stores look more crowded. a lot of the analysts i talked to say starbucks store a clay has been amazing in execution, and that it is moving around the labor and increasing labor wh

howard schultz has declared there is a secular change against the mall.rs are shopping the mall to see if they can't get things for less. amazon did nothing to persuade me with that. people think they should pay for more prime. and google called out the process of google while shopping. and it has been a bear, while rerail was throw through much of the country, it was good in california and florida where the weather was fine. weather drew the quarter and that is stealth technology, it doesn't matter whether it is cold or hot and they are winner. and i'm no fan of walmart's execution, the mention of the weather and cut back in food stamps resonates. surely the government shutdown really hurt. it looks like the forward government -- federal government impeded things with sha shutdown. and the united states is dramatically overstored and at this moment after the great recession has ended is when the futures in sears and joe paterno penny seem most in dou-- jcpenn. think the hot money would gravitate toward the consumer package goods, called cpg's with higher

i think howard schultz, tremendous credit for creating a category and an industry, which really broughtoffee to the fore. and i think what you're seeing with sweetleaf, chinatown coffee here, bringing independent coffee shops and quality, high-quality coffee to people that they didn't have access to, so we bring in coffee from intelligentsia in chicago, 49th parallel in vancouver, ritual coffee, in san francisco. we give customers an experience not only from a coffee perspective but also from a place and neighborhood perspective that you can't get at starbucks necessarily. >> max, you mentioned these different places from which you source your coffee from, whom you buy it. but is it really making a difference? can you taste the difference? >> it makes a huge difference. and it's really like wine. there's great wine, there's good wine and there's not so good wine. and so to get the highest quality beans you have to have these relations with the farmers in colombia, in brazil, in guatemala. and our partners have access to those farmers, direct trade, they're getting top dollar for their b

howard schultz is one of my bankable ceos. he used the weaknesses of starbucks to buy.o to pearson in new york. >> caller: booyah, professor cramer. thank you for what you do for the little investors. do i buy bank of america? >> it's one of the largest positions in my trust. you can follow along. both stephanie and i think this is the one, the bank for 2014. armand in california. >> caller: hello, mr. cramer. thank you for taking my call. a few weeks ago you mentioned waiting for go go to go down to the mid 20s. now it's around 24. is it gogo a good investment for the long term? >> a lot of people are telling me i'm on the wrong side of go go, it's an extreme short. it did spike up eight points after we recommended it. it's come back down to a level where i feel comfortable to say, yes, this is where i wanted go go. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. >> announcer: lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] sti

ceo howard schultz is always illuminating on his calls. he's a fabulous teacher.rom @tankman12, of course. he cuts right to the heart of retirement investing when he asks, quote, should imax out my 401(k) or cut it back and do more in the stock market separate from the 401(k)? that's a really great query. it's one of the many questions we've gotten about how to manage a 401(k). if you don't know they are the main way americans save for retirement. they are offered by your employer and they are among the great tax deferred investment vehicles out there, along with individual retirement accounts or iras. a lot of experts will tell you to max out your 401(k) if you make enough to be feasible. this year the maximum contribution is $17,500. those come from the pretax income. i'm not one of the people who thinks you should max it out. i'm not someone who will sing the praises and tell you it is the key to your financial salvation. the truth is they can be a real mixed bag, with a couple of really great features and bad ones, too. the bad features eat away at your return

on friday, howard schultz, ceo of starbucks, said last quarter december was it.that was a seismic shift. everyone is going to the internet and brick and mortar is dead. i don't believe them, but it is a tougher environment. you better figure out how to combine both of them. >> all right. maybe they'll see the three of your help in that whole thing. thanks, biz panel. let's check in with shepherd smith reporting live from the fox news deck. >> news begins anew at the top of the hour. we have an unusual report today. centers around a page on instagram. the page is called 2014 cline pose. it shows pictures of underage girls, some topless. the sheriff is investigating. so one girl's parents are taking matters into their own hands. they're not going after the school, not going after the teachers. instead, they're suing the kid creators and their parents. they say to teach them all a lesson. could this unusual legal move work? we'll have that and all the rest of the day's news, top of the hour. >> all right. thanks so much. >>> and senator ted cruz says the president o

. >>> leave it to howard schultz, ceo of starbucks to figure out consumer new patterns of behavior.leased a partnership note that addressed two new trends -- a significant downturn in traditional consumer, slash, pedestrian traffic malls versus online shopping and new presence that gives people the gift of choice. starbucks physical and digital cards. first 2013 was the first holiday that many traditional retailers saw in-store foot traffic give way to online shopping in a big way, schultz noted. he continued, customers watched, waited, compared prices and bought the brands and products they wanted online, frequently using a mobile device to do so. schultz said this will skew the national data and show online shopping far outpaced in store shopping. schultz said starbucks was, quote, not immune from the mall downturn but said they off set the issue by initiating, quote, world class digital and mobile payment expertise that dove staled with the changes allowing the company handle more than 1.3 billion in starbucks cards, inkreb, in the u.s. and canada which was significantly above la

. >> i think howard schultz said there's no immunity from the mall slow down and he is saying that starbucksing they're doing well. he's one of my bankable 21 in jim cramer's "get rich carefully" which i'll be autographing tomorrow night at the "y" in manhattan. i think it can give or take a point or two. let's think big. zooey in washington? >> caller: mr. cramer. thank you so much. i watch your show every day and i'm learning. >> okay. >> caller: thank you very much. i have a g.e. option expiring this year. should i -- >> hold your g.e., they report on friday, i believe it will be good. i mentioned it's even bigger, because i think 2014 will be a good year. juan in pennsylvania. juan? >> caller: hey, jim. i want to say happy booyah to you. >> same. >> caller: bmy. >> bristol-myers is terrific. it's rerated a a biotech company. let's go to tom in florida. tom? >> caller: yeah, cramer. how you doing today? >> i have been up since 2:30. it was because i couldn't sleep. >> caller: i want to know your position on netflix. >> i think netflix is a stock whose market cap is not equal to the opport

so obviously howard schultz, they've tightened the belt and they're making sure that no extra money isnd. they're doing a great job. >> yeah, because we've talked about this for a couple of weeks now. schultz himself in a memo to employees after the holiday indicated that they weren't immune from the lighter store traffic that they saw during the holiday season. i guess that's what you do. you have to turn around and step on expenses here. >> that's right. he's someone who will do it immediately. he's not someone to sit and wait and see if things improve. he's very proactive. he has been telegraphing this is going to be a problem because of the lighter mall traffic. not a problem only for this quarter, he warned, but also for the future. if people are buying online as opposed to going to the mall, that's going to have a long-term impact on starbucks. they're already obviously making some adjustments as evidenced by those improved margins. >> what's interesting about them and interesting about a number of comparable companies is that -- and i haven't owned the stock -- is that they need

before that people don't know that you, of course, worked worked with howard schultz.ean from him? what is the most important thing you have learned from him? he's a great leader that is helping you now? >> so much. first, a great brand builds around what the consumer needs. it's the emotional energy and part of the magic at starbucks. one is personal station of the coffee. the second was the third place. there's an emotional connection, service, rate yule, and every day and the emotional energy of a brand. i think they have that opportunity to be a trusted food brand where you look at the label and know that you don't have to be a label detective. that this is going to be good for you because that is what the brand stands for. not only in the grocery store but in all the other venues. liz: everybody looks for it on an airport or in a hospital near you. come visit us in new york. we want to batch the company grow. >> thank you. >>> christine day. david: she has great people working with her. >>> are you looking for a better hedge fund return? perhaps you should try a f

the retail stores have been going down since howard schultz from starbucks told us about a secular declineing at holiday time. macy's saw it too and it's come up with its own strategy to combat that decline in a positive way for the shopper, and more important in cramerica, you, the shareholders. stick with cramer. so ally bank has a that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. >>> okay, two bad, one good. what can i say? abercrombie didn't expect this. they had cut numbers so much, they finally beat them. the stock is soaring. sears, so horrendous. what can i say? and five below, i'm puzzled. i thought the five below business model was very good. i've got to rethink everything five below. i like to say, there's always a bull market somewhere, i promise to try to find

but, you know, they were all kind of swept away when howard schultz took our breath away, the ceo of starbucks and came out and said these cyclical one off concerns were not the cause of retail weakness. he says we're witnessing a seismic secular shift away from mall traffic and migration to online shopping, which explains why only starbucks, macy's and costco did well. macy's has the best web presence and costco has the lowest prices because of the club status. coming into the 2014 after the labor report and realize, one, we lost autos. two, the housing-related stocks not working. three, commercial construction, big question mark. and retail, not a question mark, just bad. a huge chunk of what worked in 2013 now has been eliminated. the big portfolio managers rapidly switched directions after that labor report and headed to tech, financials and the industrials. and if you want to know why we got hit hard on thursday and friday, two of these new leadership groups slammed into a wall, the financials and industrials. the techs added to the freight today, first because of rumors of incr

. >>> starbucks ceo howard schultz, a proetian kind of guy, making a bigger bet on digital, expanding his role at the company. what's he up to, kayla? >> expanding the roll of allstead, the newly created coo. allstead will effectively be the new ceo. all regional heads will report to him and run the day-to-day operations. schultz is expanding his focus to digital. talked about the amazon, a turning point, watershed moment for brick and mortar retailers and wants to spend time doing that so starbucks can stay ahead of the game. >> digital coffee? i don't get it. >> seems interesting. how far can starbucks go into this arena? can't get your coffee delivered to your doorstep, or can you? so much done on mobile devices. starbucks at the forefront. $4 billion loaded on to gift cards, one of the primary modes of payment. >> or loaded on to your phone. >> 5 million mobile transactions a week for starbucks. able to get out in front, want to stay there. he needs to devote more time to that. >> interesting. kayla, thanks. >>> all right. sue, down to you. >> ty, while the markets are up and the

sometimes it takes the high priest like howard schultz at starbucks or steve jobs of apple to come back and challenge the religion created around them and say it's time to move and grow and move on. which is what he's doing. >> part of the beauty of lists like this is they spur debate. i remember in our internal conversations, jeff, while i don't want you to spill the off the record kind of things, there were several candidates who were ultimately on the list whom you argued maybe shouldn't be or that we should consider in a different light. let me ask you your quick thoughts, quick thoughts on john brown, lord brown of bp, mickey arasin of carnival and ed whitaker of southwestern bell, at & t and ultimately, gm. >> those three get a lot of credit they don't deserve and don't have all the accountability they should have taken on. take a look at mickey, you had six ships in distress, most dramatically the "triumph" last year. he has always hid behind his lieutenants. it's an old joke in the maritime world that it's the captain who announces shore leave and the first mate has to announce

howard schultz effectively is one of the great leaders out there. i think with starbucks, he really shook up lifestyle. i think there is something to be said for that. >> i've got a clear number one. it's not one of those three guys, not jobs, not gates. >> you have to hold your fire. >> i'm not saying anything for like four months. you know who it is. >> i do know who it is. i certainly don't disagree. >> it's me. i picked myself. >> i disagree. >> i will guess, by the way, i will guess you are going to say john vogel but i don't know. >> i couldn't hear, i got the wrap, wrap in my ear. who did you say? >> john vogel. >> no. i know john. nice guy. great pick, actually. he changed investing forever. i should have thought of that. >> you have to tune in every single day to try and find out. >> up next, what the heck is happening in retail, to retail? big names selling off, bigger red flags. we're mott junot just talking a penney and sears. we are digging in, coming up. >>> later on, our series on the mints continues with jim o'neill. why he thinks th

the retail stores have been going on since howard schultz told us about a secular decline in mall shoppingaw it too and it's came up with its own strategy to combat that decline in a positive way for the shopper, and more important in cramerica, you, the shareholders. stick with cramer. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ >>> okay, two bad, one good. what can i say? abercrombie didn't expect this. they had cut numbers so much, they finally beat them. sears, so horrendous. what can i say? and five below, i'm puzzled. i thought the five below business model was very good. i've got to rethink everything five below. i like to say, there's always a bull market som

. >> it is like howard schultz said. order online and have it delivered by fedex. they can't screw that up, the delivery side. you can't and are not going on starbucks to buy something online. very little, anyway. that could impact by these storms. >> i wonder how much the weather, that was my point. the weather's going to have an impact. whether they make a reference during the call? >> and november high, down 11%. a rough ride for starbucks. and surgical posts after the bell. we're on "street signs," this is a herb greenberg sort of name. >> herb will be watching among other things. that's margin melt, because what are the margins going to be? can they keep up a net profit margin of about 30%? building up to that? will 2013 come into that way and straddling in about a 6.5% move. so far the markets have not anticipated the moves like netflix. only pricing in about a 10% move at max, and it moved 17%. so they could be doing the same thing here. they're not pricing in enough risk to the upside or down side in my opinion.

howard schultz who takes home twenty nine million every year so how do these people get away with paying their social security taxes in like two days for the entire year. and it's easy no matter how much money you make you never have to pay more than seven thousand two hundred fifty four dollars a year in social security taxes. if you made around sixteen thousand dollars a serial end up paying around nine hundred ninety dollars in social security taxes maybe a little more than that say thirty thousand a year you'll pay around eight hundred bucks in social security taxes of fifty thousand dollars a year you pay around thirty one hundred and it's seven hundred seventeen thousand dollars a year. you'll pay seven thousand two hundred fifty four dollars in social security taxes but once you make more than one hundred seventeen thousand dollars a year even if you make thirty million dollars a year like rupert murdoch does you never have to pay more than that seven thousand two hundred fifty four bucks why because the social security system places a maximum limit on the amount of money i pay in

howard schultz, ceo, did comment on the growth of online sales saying it has been eating into thingsy have been something affected starbucks as well. if you look at the international market, they have performed better. if you look at europe, middle east, and africa, consort 5% better. they were up 8 are sent in china -- 8% in china. let's talk about microsoft as well. up about 3% to $.78. just over 24 and a half billion dollars -- $24.5 billion. commercial revenues really driving things here. cloud service revenue more than doubling according to microsoft. however, when you do talk about the consumer side of the business i was surprised. revenue support for the surface tablet more than doubling sequentially quarter over quarter and selling 7.4 million xbox consoles. it sounds like they are still selling the man seeing growth in sales. and of course the xbox, a very popular item as well. >> do you know anyone who uses a surface tablet? >> someone is buying them. >> do you know anyone who owns or uses a surface tablet? >> no one. i think michael crofton uses one. i don't know anyone el

howard schultz talked about last quarter.ere was a seismic shift and an absolute turning point for the direction of retail. brick and mortar retail. how many jobs will be lost? i know it is a form of destruction, but will something take its place? dagen: is it not already a revolution? why can't the world retailers and internet coexist? charles: scholz has that kind of appeal. i tell you, we talk about a lot. robotics companies, drones, google buying an artificial intelligence company. connell: short. that has been a debate that has been going on for a long time. dagen: you can't buy drip coffee over the internet. charles: the starbucks part of it really did confuse me. he went onto say that they really are better suited. overall, the seismic shift and what the internet would do for this country, i think what it will do for america will be phenomenal. connell: you have a criteria for taking companies that are winners and losers. charles: i love companies that are taking markets here that are innovative, they can execute. dage

. >> there was a pretty interesting letter that howard schultz sent out last night to his partners ataffic -- this was the year where mall traffic really did not do well. a lotseers and they bought things online. a gift card christmas i wonder if michael kors is a victim. but the howard schultz note was powerful because it talked about how this was the internet year and that mall traffic did not produce mall results. he has to be watched because he sees a great number of things. >> he's been prescient on this show. >> yes, he has, holy cow, he's my bankable ceo. >> he called the turn in europe. >> he did! >> carl just mentioned it and now i remember it. yeah, he really did. >> the guy is the real deal. what can i tell you? >>> let's get to another real deal, bob pisani is on the floor. hi, bob. >> for all the worrying about the drop in the year the dow closed at 16576. we're 70 points away from break even on the year. the dow is the smallest drop of all the major indices. take a look at some of the big sectors. biotech had a rough day yesterday on a downgrade but materials are still l

i think they were down because of a little noticed note by howard schultz saying mall traffic is downey is a kind of a bit of delayed reaction. i think people thought they would raise guidance. i don't know why people thought that. i think bill miller the other day who has been a red hot mutual fund manager said he's looking at jcpenney and that caused the stock to go up a little more than it should have and now it is settling back to where the rest of the department stores is which is not so hot given that howard schultz is saying the mall traffic is down. >> bill miller is back? >> bill miller is back. he's a remarkable record. >> the real talent for that and, you know, when you get a black swan, you know, you can't fault someone for not seeing every -- that's why it's called a black swan, right? you don't even know it's coming. >> totally agree. i just think that people that deserted him at the bottom now regret it because he's had an unbelievable long-term record. that's not a bad thing to look at with a long-term record. i think he's a very good stock picker. >> as an old geezer

. >> howard schultz of starbucks, he called it a turning point.tailers. a total shift in the way consumers go out and buy stuff. walmart has had some of its own problems beyond just the whole retail problems. haven't heart muchd much about sam's club. >> the crazy thing is even here in manhattan, the home to robert frank's 1% it is -- >> yeah they're mine. >> if you go to upper broadway or a lot of the retail parts of new york -- >> they're packed. >> no. >> yeah, they are. >> that's not my point, quite the contrary. there's a lot of open retail space all over -- >> yes, there is. >> -- new york, which is not what you would expect at this part of the economic cycle. i think it has to do with the decline of stores. >> i don't know. i think you really have to split it up. when you look to luxury stores particularly in manhattan because of the foreign buyers coming to buy stuff here, these places are just mobbed. i think it really is a tale of two retail economies. >> it's also a tale of new york benefiting from that -- >> totally. >> he has to get o

brian, something else that you talked about which is quite important and we saw this in howard schultz'ses a couple days ago where he said we're not immune from the desell rathsceleration in traffic that retailers are seeing but he said that's okay because we have the starbucks cards. those are two different things. i don't know many people who are using their starbucks things to buy stuff online. >> you're right on the mark. the street ignored the words of a person who founded the company and from what i can tell is very much in the trenches with daily numbers and preserving the corporate culture. for him to come out and say there's a fundamental change in how people are interacting with the brand, i think it's a big red flag. why is starbucks valued at 24.5 times forward earnings? it's a big concern. worried about the earning power of the company or at the very least if they will deliver up to the very high expectation of wall street which the guidance right now is officially above the company's earnings guidance they laid out a month ago. >> is there any concern you have about starbuc

we take howard schultz's view, this was the shift, when internet took over and bricks and mortar did, huge black hole since the year began. but when i look at industrial companies i know we want to say that china's bad, but then you're stuck with the work. if you read case by case the industrial companies, almost entirely driven by strength in china, it's counterintuitive to listen to the news about china because it presumes individual banks are controlling. that's not the case. china's doing quite well. again, that's having to do with the facts, and i don't want to make too much of the idea there's a notion of being a close reader of conference calls versus being able to take a more global view. but the global view's going to let you down. it lets you down when things get better in the economy. it's easy to do, it does not require rigorous work. >> that 3.5% ten-year, it took another wrong turn in albuquerque. >> look, we have -- we had a lot of bond market equivalents do well last week. kimberly did well, some organic growth. the banks do not do this well with the shape of the yiel

we are to quote our old friend -- this is my own extrapolation, howard schultz, the third way to entertainyou can watch tv or movies. a charming call so to speak and a charmed company. >> a charmed company. and putting out their growth targets that would seem to meet even the best of cases for the bulls in terms of continued subscriber additions. >> yes. there are so many. the letter itself which is just -- remember, there's a letter. they do things very differently. this is kind of like when you were growing up you always felt there will be this company one day and send me a nice letter about how i'm doing and have a folksy conference call, kind of an fdr fireside chat here and every single metric is better than expected. and they do things like -- i absolutely love this. it's kind of a tv guide, they got turbo fast. horseman epic series based on the adventures of marco polo. >> i'm probably going to want to watch it. they are exciting in the way that i bet the big screen was when they went from talkie or when we had tv. i mean, they -- they have a sense of greatness about them that isn't

retail, howard schultz's comments ringing in my head, the quarter where things shifted to the internetrom bricks and mortar. there are definitely issues here. they tend not to be issues people are talking. really, i went over argentina closely, there's a also of companies that have a lot riding on argentina. 40l 40 million people. we can make a great deal of argentina and saying it's the beginning of the end. argentina's been imploding for four straight months. we finally have what i thought overdue correction -- not a correction, a seminal change in currency, not unlike what happened to venezuela. when you listen to what the minister's saying, he wants to adopt very much a venezuela model, which has been difficult. strangely enough, procter & gamble talked about how to make money in venezuela. but when you change your government and go hard socialist, that takes you out of the meeemerging market quotient. you have a lot of children, that's a reason a diaper company would like to be there. argentina is going socialist marxist. the idea, oh, the emerging markets are bad. if a 40 million

but, then, howard schultz comes back and says, no, no, no, it's a secular trend.uess what i'm saying, carl, this is one of the harder moments i've seen in my career to really make sense of things, but the president could help by saying, look, the federal government's got to get back in the game. not the fed, but the federal government has to get back in the game of helping, the states are, as the states' coffers burgeon we're seeing the states do good things, but i look what's coming out and i say to myself, do you know what, we had a bad fourth quarter. it was bad. >> yeah. we're going to get an advance read on it on thursday when we get a number. maybe with a three handle but we'll see. >> the employment number is bad. >> today if we're down six on the dow we haven't done that since august, the middle of august, do you feel like this breather that we appear to be looking at is real today? >> when you come in and dupont reports a really good number, it is, someone will probably say, wait a second, gmos, genetic weapons, i love this contrast. genetic weapons versu

i know howard schultz of starbucks said dismiss the weather but there's too many places in the country where business was shut down. i think walmart is uniquely in the wrong space. they've got the wrong demo -- it's unfortunate, because 100 million people shop at walmart, but maybe people are going away from walmart to shop. >> what about those who want to draw connections between walmart and mattel, fisher-price down 13% in the quarter. the ceo calls it a transformative year in retail. >> look, i think, again, to go back to what howard said, because howard is shifting his whole business at starbucks toward going toward this change to digital retail, i think some companies had the right merchandise. costco is up 5%, macy's up 5%, starbucks up 5%, the guys that have a good culture are doing well. i want to come back, you did a fabulous special on costco. costco's got a lot of members. i mean, i was reading my costco connections last night. >> the cover. >> they went with samsung. you know, they're at war with the big dogs in cupertino and i come back and there's a secular shift in the w

this that is traffic issue that howard schultz wrote a week ago, now we're starting to hear about it.o issues at macy's. why? maybe if omni channel, macy's is combatting against amazon. i think lululemon, new ceo, clearly problems there. express, very well-run company, not doing it. l brands, very well -- the very well-run companies are being hit. >> they are being hit. >> they are being hit. in the mall. >> those who jump to the larger thesis, a major diversion where retail's going, it's really just about online and amazon and others competing. >> it is. >> but you can do that when you think about macy's and, therefore, done that argue against the idea that it isn't just about execution to getting it right? >> i think that macy's somehow, the omni channel's working. i think this is store traffic. people didn't shop as much. now we can blame the weather or say it's something secular. they shop on amazon. >> walk around with mobile devices and, right -- >> check that. >> going to the mall -- >> does that explain soda? soda's going to open 16, 17. >> we should have figured that after we

sort of is reminiscent of what howard schultz told us about the consumer in europe a very long time agoright. >> you think this is the second stage of that? >> yes. >> look for bargains in europe, but looking for real growth there, you may be looking awfully long and hard. >> i think it's bad versus not as bad. i think you are talking about a company that might have had a 2% decline versus the 2% sales increase because of the firings you get a kind of a "v." you get a "v" up in the earnings. it's not what people want. people want to see amazon. i mean, amazon has something today, they obviously contacted a couple of media companies and the next thing you know amazon's got a channel and you tick up amazon 10% because it has a channel. they have revenue growth. >> the story is, right, and actually denialed to a certain extent by an amazon spokesperson that amazon was contacting broadcasters in the broad sense of the word or providers of content about doing an over-the-top kind of thing could we have an online version of your channel which is very precarious for those selling the channels

really a seminal note came out by howard schultz on monday night saying, look, this is a secular trendit means it's going to happen for a long time. traffic is no longer going to be up. that was one. the second one was -- and therefore, because it's all online. the subtext is amazon. >> we hear mall traffic has been down for a long time now. >> right. >> i can remember even in the spring it was a bit of a theme when it came to retail and there was concern about it. >> i think people felt, wait until the holiday season comes and it will reverse and it hasn't. the other thing is gift cards, which is a spike in the way that people give giving and that helps the first quarter. i think you have to be a little bit more holistic and not to be touchy-feely here, and look online as the way that people shop in this country. and i think we'll see the numbers allianz data services was on "mad money" was up 6%, 7%. >> we referred to bill miller's comments about jcp saying that if good news started to happen it could be up 50% in his view. he had a good track record last year. do you like it here? >

and i think it's just happen -- i remember when howard schultz sent me that note two mondays, listen,im, there's been a sea change, a secular -- wow. really came together with this note being the second to last shoe to drop when amazon reports its quarter -- >> that's going to be very interesting. is there any coincidence here that amazon prime is two-day guaranteed delivery. >> that's exactly right. that's where i'm going. that's exactly right. this is a disaster for the malls not for u.p.s. u.p.s. will figure it out. they won't get it wrong again. >> amazon always gives us very little information. >> right. >> less than any company, frankly, but they did put that press release out after christmas talking about all the new prime memberships that they added. >> think about it, u.p.s. says they'll need 55,000 seasonal employees. more than would fit into yankee stadium. i think they've got the wrong stadium. they need enough employees to do one of those brazilian world cup stadiums. >> michigan. >> wolverines. the big house! they needed the big house! 55 in terms of they needed 85. to b

. >> howard schultz talked about how mall traffic was down, and bed bath is not a mall-based store.uncated conference call. but you felt no conviction whatsoever, they do buy back a lot of stock but i listened to the conference call and i said, i don't know, i don't have a case to own it. elle brands, victoria's secret was hot. >> several quarters of comps. you had to go back a long way to get negative comes at victoria. >> i've not shopped there. >> they treat male customers differently, because they know males want to get out of there quicker. >> the red panty sells much better than the -- okay. i just know this anecdotally, not empirically, but i know that they were -- we were talking about -- never mind. >> i love it when you get flustered like that. >> i'm not going anywhere with that. >> i was all ears. can i mention shares of mckesson, yesterday there were reports that they would reach a deal to complete the acquisition of the german company where it had opposition from elliott and today we get the press release saying they made their best and final offer increased its price

howard schultz in a memo to starbucks employees recently talked about how they were not immune from ac during the holiday period and i wonder if you can comment on that and the kind of locations you have versus starbucks and whether you guys see investing in, for example, cards and mobile payments as an area that is equally important to the focus that starbucks has put on it to kind of guide you into a more web and mobile-based future? >> well, firstly, what i would say is that, yeah, we think of ourselves as a little bit of a technology company now. i came from the pizza industry. when i went to papa john's, we had online pizza ordering at 6%. when i left it was 30% and it's now 45%. so, i've seen if you like the future with technology. howard is absolutely right. we've got with our app mobile payments, our customers love it. it speeds up service. we're going to use it for our loyalty program. and i think technology really is the future. even baskin-robbins we've been testing in san diego and detroit online cake ordering. we had great results. we're going to roll that out later this

schultz. i can tell you the two bills make sure this item stays very focused in our department. you will have a chance to hear from dr. howardoh who is our .ssistant secretary of health lushniak who is the acting surgeon general. they are incredibly involved leaders in this whole process. we have made a lot of progress in the 50 years since the first surgeon general's report on smoking and health. we are still a country very much addicted to tobacco. addiction, this epidemic has serious ramifications for our families, communities, our overall health, and the health of our economy. today we are calling on all americans to join in a sustained effort to make the next generation a tobacco-free generation. our message the american people is this -- there are things that each of us can do in our own communities, our own schools, businesses that make significant contributions to ending this epidemic. saving the lives of our loved ones and making the next generation tobacco free. i invite you to think just for a loss ofbout what the one life means to a family. what that means to a neighborhood, a community. year,fter year after toba